New zero-day Java exploit on sale for a five digit sum

(LiveHacking.Com) – A new zero-day Java exploit has been offered for sale on an underground black market cyber criminal Internet forum. The new threat is advertised as working on Java JRE 7 Update 9, the most recent version of Java, but doesn’t affect Java 6 or earlier versions.

According to Brian Krebs, the exploit is serious enough that an attacker could use it to remotely seize control over any systems running the program. This typically means it would be used to spread malware. If a cyber criminal did buy this exploit it would most likely be used to spread a banking Trojan so that the buyer could recoup the money spent. In the end it is all about money (illegally and immorally gained of course).

The exploit has been offered for sale on an invite-only Underweb forum for an undisclosed sum but the seller suggested that it needs to be five digits (meaning $100,000 or more). There are not many details, but the vulnerability is said to be in ‘MidiDevice.Info,’ a Java class which handles MIDI devices. The seller has tested the exploit on Firefox and Internet Explorer running on Windows 7.

“I will only sell this ONE TIME and I leave no guarantee that it will not be patched so use it quickly,” the exploit seller is reported to have written.

Many security experts, including us here at Live Hacking, have lots of concerns about the number of possible vulnerabilities in Java. If you don’t need Java it is best to remove it completely from your system.

As an alternative you can also disable your current Java Plug-in temporarily to prevent being vulnerable to Java-based threats. For Windows systems, go to “Control Panel” and select “Java”. When the “Java Runtime Environment Settings” dialog box appears, select the “Java” tab. From there, click the “View” button. You will see a list of the currently installed versions of Java. Uncheck the “Enabled” check box to disable that installation from being used by Java Plug-in and Java Web Start. Oracle has published a detailed description of these settings.